National Milk Chocolate Day on Wednesday, July 28, 2027, honors a treat invented by a Swiss businessman who started out making candles. An American caramel maker later turned it into a nickel candy bar.
When Milk Chocolate Gets Its Day
Every July 28 brings the day around, with no official sponsor on record.
From Vevey to Lancaster
Who started the food day was never written down. The candy’s own beginnings in Vevey, Switzerland, are well documented.
Daniel Peter and his brother Julien bought a former factory in Vevey’s Bosquets district in 1861, from the heirs of François-Louis Cailler. They made candles there at first.
By 1867 the brothers had founded Peter, Cailler and Co. Their neighbor was Henri Nestlé, who was already making infant flour.
Nestlé’s milk condenser gave Peter an idea. He stopped using fresh milk, and in 1875 he mixed cocoa with condensed milk. The result was milk chocolate. Swissinfo and the Cailler company both credit him.
Hershey’s nickel bar
Milk chocolate began as a European luxury. Milton Hershey was the first to produce it commercially. He used mass production and fresh milk, according to the Hershey Community Archives. His new chocolate company began by selling baking chocolate and cocoa.
He was already doing well with the Lancaster Caramel Company in the early 1890s. At the 1893 Columbian Exposition, he saw a complete chocolate-making operation and bought the whole assembly. It was set up in a wing of his caramel factory in Lancaster.
Getting the recipe right took trial and error. Bert Black, who joined in 1899, put it simply: “Nobody told Mr. Hershey how to make milk chocolate. He just found out the hard way.”
Hershey’s milk chocolate went on sale in 1900, at first in just a few shapes: bars, croquettes and wafers. Even then, it took several more years to settle on the final formula.
The wrapper changed often. The first ones, from 1900 to 1903, used gold lettering on white glossy paper. From 1906 to 1911, the company switched to silver ink after a rival confectioner complained. The block-letter design followed in 1912.
When cocoa bean prices swung in the 1950s, Hershey changed the bar’s weight rather than its five-cent price. The nickel bar finally ended on November 24, 1969, when a ten-cent bar more than twice the weight took its place.
A Luxury Turned Everyday
That nickel price held for almost 70 years. In that time, a European luxury became an ordinary American snack.
Switzerland never lost its taste for the stuff. Swiss residents ate 10.2 kilograms of chocolate per person in 2001, ahead of Austrians at 9.1 kilograms, Swissinfo reported.
What Counts as Milk Chocolate in the U.S.
Federal rules set minimums. A product sold as milk chocolate needs at least 10% chocolate liquor by weight. It also needs at least 3.39% milkfat and 12% total milk solids.
Tasting Ideas for National Milk Chocolate Day
- Compare countries: taste Swiss and American milk chocolate bars side by side.
- Read the wrapper: check the cocoa percentage and the milk ingredients.
- Dip something: melt a bar and coat strawberries or pretzels.
- Bake with it: stir chopped milk chocolate into cookie dough.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who invented conching?
Rodolphe Lindt, another Swiss chocolate maker, is credited with it.
When did candy bars get nutrition labels?
In December 1973, Hershey added nutrition labeling to all its candy bars, a first for the industry.
Is there another legal name for milk chocolate?
Yes. Products can also be labeled “milk chocolate coating.” Emulsifiers are allowed up to 1% by weight.
When did bar codes appear on Hershey wrappers?
UPC codes started showing up on the packaging in 1976.